Your friendly neighbourhood geek

Why doesn’t Outlook Express let me see .JPG pictures?

Why is Outlook Express (Version 6) removing .jpg attachments attachements from my emails I send on grounds of ‘safety’? I accept that certain files may be dangerous, but surely .jpg files are innocuous.

The decision to remove .jpg files from emails was a response to a particular type of malicious attack common in emails a few years ago. It centers around the fact that based on your settings, most people hide the extension of files that windows can recognise. This means that you may have an executable for example, that is called x.jpg.exe .. Windows hides the .exe in the extension and a user things he’s dealing with a .jpg file. This way, people could be persuaded to execute a malicious file, thinking they were clicking on an image.

Unfortunately, once software manufacturers take a decision like this, everyone is affected, even if they only use email to send photos of their loved ones. It’s one of these cases when actions by a few affect many. Email is used for a variety of purposes nowadays, from hoax emails and adverts for nuphedra all the way to emails from Nigeria and solicitations for everything under the sun. However, it’s also used for family to communicate with one another, work and all sorts of useful purposes. Just make sure you have a virus scanner and you’ll be safe wherever you go.